Brave New World
by Ritual
Summary: A moment of reflection in the new world. Spoilers for Daybreak, Part II.


_"You know what's all over the ship? You and the Sagittarons. How you might actually be listening to them."_ - Sharon Agathon, The Woman King

"Come... let's go." Karl takes her hand.

Karl and Sharon walk outside the small encampment they've built, the small cluster of Cylon and humans too busy in their work to notice their leaders stepping out of the tent.

"Okay," Sharon says with a smirk on her face, "where are we going?"

"You'll see." Karl enters into the raptor, gliding out through the grove with Sharon sitting in silence beside him until they come to the end of the settlement. It stops at a cliff fall. Sharon awes as he continues to drive the raptor down a sloping trail.

The sun is setting against the water. The waves of the ocean crash gently onto the white sand beach. It's a beautiful sight as clouds not far off are swept over the sky in tumbling grey blues just above the pink violets of the setting sun. Flashes of lightning there shimmer in gold. The air is a cool moist breeze, salty to the taste in her mouth as she touches the soft white sands with her feet, awed like a child stepping into the world for the very first time.

Sharon says nothing as she closes her eyes, lifting her head to the gentle gusts as her arms stretch out from her sides. She hums quietly to herself, enjoying the way it seems to meld with the waves and the wind. She sways slightly, her ear turning to her shoulder as she steps out farther, parting her legs as she allows the sense of beauty to sweep her into the very essence of where she is.

Karl gazes at her. "I think we can really make it here. Humans – Cylons, I think this is going to work out."

After what seems like a small eternity, Karl speaks to Sharon again as she looks at the seemingly endless beauty of the idyllic waters. "Come, there's more here to see," he says as he looks at her beautiful face, the image that has etched itself crystal clear in his mind's eye. Karl walks slowly beside Sharon. She is very quiet for some reason today, even around all this beauty, and Karl doesn't know how to ask her about what is wrong.

So much has happened to them, they've come so far to defy the odds. Karl still remembers the shattered look she had when she discovered that Boomer had taken Hera, how she seemed to struggle simply to keep from crumbling at the thought that their little girl might be gone forever, or the cruelty she might have endured. Did she still have nightmares about losing Hera, or was it about Boomer? He doesn't know for certain; all he knows is that he loves her, and he'll be there to help her through it.

Karl is trying to think of something to say but they keep on hitting endless silences between comments. A huge line of trees is ahead of them. "This place reminded me of Caprica," he says with a smile. "I know Baltar is building a farm nearby. Heard he named it after Felix, there's a huge garden, it stretches for three miles." He slips between the trees and waits for Sharon as she follows him. Looking carefully around the trees that surround them, Karl steps forward and looks back at Sharon. "Are you coming?" Karl asks playfully. She glances at him, smiling back at him. Sharon starts to walk ahead of him.

Karl starts walking faster, trying to keep up with Sharon's pace despite his slight limp. "They are really beautiful, aren't they? I'm sure they'll change with the season, but I've never really seen them properly. I've always been working on the irrigation system or the memorial wall before I've got a chance to come here and really look...." Karl's voice trails off as he watches Sharon walking through the garden looking up at the trees that surround her. He can't stop thinking about how beautiful she looks, and how frustrating it is that he can't say anything about how concerned he feels inside.

Sharon looks back at him, smiling. "What's the matter, Karl? You've gone all quiet on me. I thought you were going to show me the best of this place being the tour guide that you are."

Karl smiles back at Sharon nervously. "Nothing's the matter, Sharon, just that..." he doesn't know how to put it into words. Maybe it's still lingering guilt over what happened with Boomer on the Galactica and he's simply imagining the troubled look he saw on her face. Maybe the truth is that he still thinks he should be punished for what happened with Boomer and losing Hera in the first place.

"Come on, Karl, don't get all shy with me," she laughs. "It doesn't exactly fit in with the hard ass raptor wrangler image now, does it?" She sits down in the grass and looks up at Karl.

"I don't know what my image is any more," Karl sighs. "We found this planet, there's other humans living here. My head goes into a tailspin trying to rationalize everything. When I took you to Galactica and they put you in a cage, I never thought they'd trust us. And here we are, building a future together with people who were trying to kill us less than a year ago." Karl sits down next to her, searching her dark eyes. "But I have everything I need," he says, kissing her hand. "My problems are nothing that you should be worrying about, Sharon. I know how much you've been through; you have enough of your own concern to handle than trying to handle mine." Karl pauses, noticing how Sharon is trying to avoid looking at him now. "Is there anything bothering you? Is it about Hera, about Boomer?"

Sharon looks down at the ground. "What is there to tell, Karl? Boomer... I can't change the fact that she took her, and I can't forget it either. But… we shared a life as Sharon Valerii, and she helped me get Hera back. It's a complicated mess…"

Sharon kicks out in frustration, hitting a nearby tree and sending birds scattering across the lilac and orange sunset sky. Karl looks up and pulls Sharon back into the trees. "Not the best way of staying relaxed, but if it made you feel better, it must have been worth it." Sharon then looks up at Karl again, he sees those beautiful eyes; he wants to say something to make her feel better. He looks at her trying to get eye contact with her. "Sharon, you can't handle all that on your own. You can confide in me. I'm always going to be here for you."

She looks away from Karl and hugs her knees to her chest. "We're on a planet with limited resources, trying to do the best to survive. I'm still worried about our daughter. I've lost her twice, and part of me feels like it's a cycle that's going to keep repeating. Losing Hera the last time, thinking that she was being dissected… I didn't know what I was going to do, I kept seeing this vision of her running away into this white light, and I thought it meant she was gone, that she was dead and I would never see her again. I still have nightmares that she's gone…" Sharon lent her head on Karl's chest as he held her. "I spent over a year thinking I lost our daughter, only to lose her all over again. And I worry about her still, I worry that she was being punished because of my mistakes…" her voice had started to crack as she talks and she moves to turn away from Karl and doesn't want him to see her crying

Karl strokes her soft black hair as she cries into him. He rests his chin on top of her head. "We're not going to lose Hera again," Karl promises, slowly placing his hand to her chin, tilting her head round so she was looking at him. "Things are different now. Everything's different. There aren't any easy answers, but we're going to make it – together." He pauses a moment, and closes his eyes, remembering the first time they met in the pouring rain on the decimated world of Caprica. "I love you, Sharon."

Sharon's eyes come up to look at Karl from behind a veil of black hair. Karl swallows slowly looking at her eyes; they seemed to go on forever. Her face hangs so close to his that it was like they were about to kiss. "I know," she says, "you didn't have to do this. I'll be all right."

Karl smiles, he can't help but smile as he looks at her face. "I'm not going anywhere, Sharon. There's no place else is worth being at." Slowly, she leans back so that she is sitting next to him again.

Sharon breathes in slowly, trying to calm down. She closes her eyes briefly in thought.

Karl looks at his wife, moving closer and puts his arms around her. "We should bring Hera here next time, before the raptor demolition."

Sharon laughs softly, picturing her daughter taking in the beautiful garden around her, the three of them together. No more battles, no more wars, only the three of them living out the rest of their lives together on this planet.

Karl looks away from her. "It's almost time, Sharon, come on."

"Almost time?" Sharon asks.

"You'll see." Karl says.

Karl comes to a stop at a cliff, overlooking tree covered mountains in the distance, and in the star-lit sky, a multitude of colors come across the sky, like waves gleaming across a beach. It's beautiful. Sharon looks up at it and smiles.

"It's incredible," she says in a cheerful laugh. "Thank you." She kisses Karl's shoulder, and puts her head on his neck as she looks at the sight.


End file.
